European leaders are likely to ease pressure on China over human rights in exchange for Beijing's involvement in a bailout, campaigners have warned.

Major rights organisations fear governments and EU officials will tone down criticism – a particular concern given that this year saw China's most severe crackdown on activists, dissidents and lawyers for over a decade.

"It is definitely a big worry. We have already seen a weakening on human rights issues over some time, and I think this will exacerbate it," Corinna-Barbara Francis, a China expert at Amnesty International, said.

Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said: "I fear EU officials will be that much more reticent about criticising the Chinese government over anything.

"I can't imagine these conversations are going on without [suggestions] on the side that certain issues should no longer feature so prominently in EU diplomacy."

An editorial issued by the state news agency Xinhua on Thursday said arguing that China sought concessions "unjustly politicised" its willingness to help Europe.

It added: "Even if the debt crisis had not happened and the EU had not sought Chinese help, China would never stop demanding that the EU abandon its obsolete mentality and take a more open-minded approach on issues of currency disputes, high-tech export restrictions, arms sales embargo and human rights censure. Simply put, China's goodwill deserves fair treatment from the EU."

Even before the Greek prime minister's shock announcement of a referendum threw the bailout proposal into chaos, China had stressed that it would take its time and would not reach a concrete deal at the G20 summit.

Analysts expect China to be highly cautious in using its foreign reserves and demand guarantees of their safety.

Some believe that conservative approach will make it hard for Beijing to gain concessions on other issues, but activists think China will nonetheless seek to use it as leverage on rights and that at least some EU leaders will tacitly concede ground, partly because they do not see the issue as a priority and partly because it is easier to make subtle shifts on rights than on the arms embargo.

Francis said there was a broader trend of muting criticism as economic ties grew, citing Cambodia's repatriation of 20 Uighur refugees to China two days before the countries signed deals worth an estimated $850m. Beijing denied any link.

"Clearly the EU should have a bit more resilience but, given the dire situation of the economy, I think it's going to have an impact," she added.

She said last year's Nobel peace prize had "brought out in relief" how China ties rights to other issues, often economic. Beijing was furious when the Nobel committee honoured the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo and Associated Press reported this summer that Norway's salmon exports to China had plummeted.

"The Chinese government's increased economic clout in a world of needy borrower governments presents the risk that the international community will conveniently ignore one of the key lessons of the current global financial crisis," Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, a Chinese NGO based in Hong Kong and New York, said.

"The lesson is precisely that you need to be tough with your 'banker'. Compromising on fundamental principles such as transparency, accountability, rule of law – and most importantly, human rights – in exchange for short-term economic benefits will only expose everyone to the risks of another unsustainable house of cards."

Wang Songlian, of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network, said both China and Europe understood that involvement in a deal would give Beijing greater influence.

She urged western leaders to work together, saying: "European governments do still have quite a lot of influence on the Chinese government. If they lose this opportunity, it becomes harder and harder in future."

A spokeswoman for the European External Action Service said: "We have a longstanding and very clear position re human rights in China, most recently expressed a week ago by High Representative Ashton in Beijing."